Safe Search Kids - Education, Parenting, Internet Safety for All

Teachers play a pivotal role in the life of children. Not only are they responsible for teaching them the foundations of a variety of topics and subjects, but they work to encourage, inspire and motivate kids daily. It’s all about prepping them for their future, which is made up of more than just a career.

With that said, teachers also need to be tuned in where the mental health of students is concerned. This means knowing what the signs of stress are in a child so that you can act quickly and appropriately. Here are some of the ways teachers can recognize the signs of stress in their students.

You See the Student Start to Withdraw

This particular sign can be one of the first red flags you notice and that’s a student pulling away or withdrawing from their friends and participating in class. This will be more noticeable in students who previously were very active and social in the classroom.

There Can be Physical Signs of Stress

Did you know that stress can also cause physical symptoms that make the child sick? This can include chronic headaches, stomach pain and discomfort and even muscles aches and pains. The fact is that stress does a number on a person’s immune system, leaving them more susceptible to catching illnesses.

Their Emotions are All Over the Place

A child who is stressed may also appear to have emotions that are all over the place. They can go from happy to sad in the snap of a finger and they may get over-emotional in situations that don’t warrant that kind of response. Some examples can include:

• The child is quick to lose their temper
• They yell when losing their temper
• They are overly anxious.
• They cry often
• They are irritable
• They don’t have a lot of patience
• They seem to have a hard time controlling and regulating their mood

Because their emotions are swaying from one extreme to the other, it can leave them feeling scared and frustrated, unsure of what they should do.

What Can be Done About It?

While it’s important to recognize the signs of stress, the emphasis should be on reducing and even eliminating it so that it never spirals out of control. Kids should be encouraged to use stress-busting techniques and tools such as learning meditation, which can be done throughout the day to calm themselves down.

Teachers also need to keep parents in the loop and let them know if there are any concerns. Speaking to the parents/caregivers can help shed light on what is happening. This also allows for everyone to be on the same page when it comes to how the stress will be addressed.

Recognizing the Signs of Stress in Students

Teaching kids how to deal with anxiety while they are young to avoid increased anxiety.  Over three-quarters of university students stating they hide mental health symptoms.

• 42% of university students experience a serious psychological issue for which they felt they needed professional help.
• The same percentage of students accessed counseling support last year, indicating that help is readily available at university.
• In January 2021, 63% of students said their mental health had worsened since the start of the academic year.
• 58% of students who struggle to manage their money say it affects their mental health negatively.

Understanding and managing anxiety is key to reducing issues related to stress as students move through their educational life.

Children, teens and young adults of any age need to learn how to:

• Understand and embrace anxiety triggers
• Learn Coping techniques and how to prepare for life in halls
• How to deal with financial pressures
• Managing academic pressures
• Discover the importance of a healthy lifestyle

Knowing what the signs of stress look like will help you to be a teacher that is tuned in and helps your students in every way possible. Just remember – the sooner you spot the red flags and act upon them, the better the outcome will be.

Teaching Kids to Mitigate Online Burnout

For those of us raised in the landline generation, social media can feel like terrifying new terrain. No sooner did we get our heads around Facebook, than it was deemed uncool by the younger generation, who quickly moved onto Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. It’s tempting to embrace being a ‘tech dinosaur’ and scoff at the latest craze, but as parents this is a risky strategy.

Our children’s lives are moving more and more online, into a rapidly changing, unmarshalled digital world. It’s essential we understand how they’re using social platforms, to keep them safe and to support their mental health. So, here’s 5 top tips to engage with our children’s virtual world and help them form a healthy relationship with social media.

1. Set boundaries

Setting boundaries sounds obvious, but it’s easier said than done. Particularly in the last year, allowing our children to get lost in their screens has been an easy way to give us much-needed respite. However, we know that too much screen time is detrimental to our children’s mental health and can affect their sleep, so it’s essential that we’re helping them to strike a healthy balance.

There’s lots of great advice out there about how to enforce time limits and set parental controls, but this will always work better if it’s done in collaboration with your child. Ask them how much time they think is appropriate and you may be surprised by how reasonable their response is.

It’s also useful to think about how and when they’re using their devices. Last thing at night can affect their sleep and first thing in the morning can risk them becoming addicted, needing their ‘fix’ the minute they wake up. Similarly, playing on Minecraft will have a very different emotional impact to scrolling through ‘beach body’ images on Instagram. Sometimes setting boundaries can be as simple as telling them to change what app they’re on, to give them a mental health break.

2. Educate them about staying safe

Again, this one can feel tricky when it’s our children who are the digital natives, while we feel more like anxious tourists. However, on a neurological level, children and young people haven’t developed the ability to gauge and assess risk accurately, so they need us to support them with this. As the digital world is moving fast, it’s impossible to keep on top of all the new platforms and associated risks, so educating our children on understanding the dangers is our best hope.

Letting them know the importance of protecting their personal information is essential, spelling out just how easy it is to give details away without realizing we’ve done it. Also, let them know how disinhibited we can become when we’re online. This is particularly pertinent when we look at cyberbullying. It may be that they fall victim to bullying and need our support, but it’s also incredibly easy for children to fall into the trap of bullying others, without even recognizing that that’s what they’re doing.

3. Take an interest

We’re often quick to judge what’s a valuable use of our children’s time and what’s a waste. Maybe we give them our full attention when they let us know about how they got on in their football match or if they’ve had a fall out in the playground, but when they start telling us about even the positive things they are doing online, we immediately glaze over.

While we may find it hard to enthuse about social platforms, we still want our children to come to us about them. Our children may have whole friendship groups, hobbies and an entirely different persona online that we need to know about. So have a strong coffee, take a deep breath and try to act interested as they talk about this aspect of their lives. By being curious and asking questions we’ll be better informed and we’ll become closer to our children too.

4. Don’t demonize social media

Similarly, it can be tempting to make dismissive comments when our children talk about their social media use. ‘What are you on that for? Get outside in the fresh air and spend time with your real friends!’ may be on the tip of our tongues, particularly if we’ve read up on all the negative aspects of social media, but all we’re doing is telling our children not to talk to us about their online lives – and that’s a dangerous message.

There’s lots of positives to social media. For children struggling with their mental health, they can find others in a similar situation and draw strength from them, and in the various lockdowns, social media did a lot to stave off the feelings of isolation and loneliness that many young people felt. Find out how your child is using social media and if it does seem to be impacting negatively on their mental health, help them to find more positive ways of using it.

5. Encourage real life connections

Finally, as with most things, it’s about balance. It’s okay for children to use social media but it’s important that they have other sides to their life as well. If they have a club or hobby that they enjoy, encourage them to keep it up. If it looks like they’re losing interest, have an honest conversation with them and agree together what they can do to maintain connections with the real world.

Encouraging our children to have their friends over is another way to maintain those real world relationships, as is making sure we’re spending quality time with them too. Days out, walking the dog, baking or getting creative together are all good ways to bring us closer to our children and are also a great way to engineer conversations about how things are going in their online world.

We don’t have to ‘lose’ our children to social media. By being open and interested in what they’re telling us, without overreacting or jumping to conclusions, they’ll know that they can come to us if they have a problem. By doing this we’re also modelling communication, compassion and problem-solving skills which are all cornerstones of healthy relationships. If they’re experiencing these in the real world, they’re much more likely to apply them to their virtual lives too.

Do prices seem to be constantly rising but you REALLY need to save on office and school electronics?   With Brands like Apple, HP, Samsung and Dell, Factorydirect.ca has what you need.  We have thousands of amazing deals on Cellphones, Notebooks, Tablets plus our back to school notebook specials starting at $99.99 will blow your mind.

Helen has nearly 20 years’ experience working with children and young people.  As a primary school teacher and child and adolescent counselor she is passionate about understanding and supporting children. Helen is head of counseling at Mable Therapy, a company transforming the way children and young people across the UK access therapy. By replacing traditional therapy methods with immersive, game-based therapy and technology, the process of achieving goals becomes fun and rewarding.

In a world of easy internet access, our children are vulnerable to online criminals. There are several types of personal data that parents should protect for their kids. We’ll take a look at what you need to know to keep your family safe online.

We will also show a valuable resource that shows which apps for kids that collect the most data.  This data collection goes unnoticed unless parents are vigilant.

Your Children Are Vulnerable Online

Because we all use the web so much, it’s easy to forget about internet privacy. Companies, agencies, and other organizations track us when we are online: our location, our financial data, and our personal information, as well as what we buy. Even our conversations are recorded and stored by companies.

Companies use this data for marketing. Unfortunately, hackers and other criminals can access it to steal, defame, and otherwise harm our children. One of the main forms that kids are at risk is through the use of apps.  Apps are used for education, social media, gaming, messaging, and streaming entertainment.  These are just one facet of a child’s internet use.

Ways to Protect Your Family

The first step is to talk to your children. As long as your children are online, they are not too young to learn about internet safety. Set age-appropriate rules and boundaries for internet usage. Then, teach them to understand why you’ve put these in place.

The most important thing you can teach them is to avoid sharing information with people they don’t know. They should not share personal data, like their phone or address, online. Instead, they can give that info out via phone or text.

In the meantime, there are steps you can take to safeguard their privacy online:

• Use a VPN with your internet service to block unwanted sites and safeguard browsing features.
• Protect your browser by disabling tracking cookies and enabling private browsing in your options. That will protect their data and actions from being monitored.
• Use trustworthy antivirus services and parental controls to keep kids and their computers safe.
• Have your kids set up and store unique and complex passwords for all their accounts. Using the same ones repeatedly puts them at risk.

Besides these generic safety tools, there are several options you can employ to protect them during their most common activities.

Social Media

Just about all our kids are on social media. Unfortunately, this can be a dangerous place. To keep kids safe, you must teach them to keep personal data private while on social media. Here are some simple guidelines you can teach them:

• What we share online can be stored forever. Make sure your kids understand how to use good judgment and discretion when posting. If they are uncertain, start a conversation about what makes a good post versus TMI (too much information).
• Everyone likes to post photos. Sadly, family pictures can attract predators, cyberbullies, and other internet dangers. Teach them to respect others’ privacy by not posting pictures of other people without their permission.
• Many websites give you an option to log in using a social media profile rather than your email. That leads to numerous security dangers. Instead, teach your kids to set up a new profile via email rather than exposing social media data.

Virtual Gaming

Online gaming is another area that exposes our kids to identity theft, data mining, phishing, and other hazards. There are several protections you can put in place to safeguard their virtual gaming activities.

• Computer cameras and mics may be exploited with the click of an insecure link. Be sure your kids are not clicking anything suspicious or unverified while in games. You can also cover the camera and unplug peripherals when offline.
• Turn off location tracking on devices if possible whenever gaming.
• If you have secure Wifi or a VPN and antivirus software, you’ll give your child an extra level of protection against unsecured gaming servers.
• Finally, be sure to update applications and software regularly.

Online Shopping

Safely shopping online is a bit of a tricky activity since your child needs to enter secure data, such as location, phone, and credit card info. Teach your child to recognize safe sites for shopping (i.e., Amazon, Target) versus unknown name sites or links that redirect elsewhere. Additionally, kids need to be wary of clicking email links from unknown sources.

Posting a direct bank account link is also unsafe. Therefore, instead of using a debit card, have your kids use a credit card for an extra measure of safety. Kids should also protect their credit card usage by keeping their online receipts and looking for suspicious activity on their accounts. Have them avoid saving credit card data either with a retailer or in their cookies.

Online Courses

Since the pandemic, more children are relying on online education. Unfortunately, from 2018 to 2019, problems with student data security in classrooms tripled. Your child’s grades, progress, and other confidential school data are stored online and can be vulnerable to attacks.

Be sure that your educators and administrators take the appropriate steps to protect student privacy. Review your schools’ digital policies, including how information is protected and shared. Schools should use FERPA Sherpa, a government resource designed to help them protect student privacy.

Kids today cannot avoid using the internet. This puts them at great risk for cybercrimes. However, these simple steps can keep your children safe online no matter what they are doing. As mentioned, apps are now one of the ways most of us access resources and information according to our own interests. This is especially true when using smart phones and tablets.

We all want our children to be healthy, happy, and successful. But medicine is not always enough for the health of a child. In such a case, different types of therapy come to the rescue. Here we will tell you about pet therapy and how it can benefit your child.

Animal therapy, or pet therapy, is one of the methods in rehabilitation and psychotherapy. Boris Levinson began to develop this field in earnest in 1961: the doctor noticed that the presence of a dog helped establish contact with a child with autism.  Animals are known to help not be afraid of children who are facing painful procedures like injections. Even a small aquarium in the lobby of an outpatient clinic or medical center should already dampen the fear a bit.

Pet Therapy

There are two directions in pet therapy. The first is animal-associated therapy, i.e. activities that focus on treatment and assistance: development of motor skills, recovery from serious illnesses, alleviation of the symptoms of mental illness, and making contact in a specific way. The second is called animal-associated activity, which is more general work with animals aimed at evoking positive emotions in patients. The individual areas have their names: hippotherapy (work with horses), dolphin therapy, dog therapy (work with dogs), and feline-assisted therapy (work with cats).

The Americans started using animals in the treatment of illnesses in 1969, and today cats, dogs, dolphins, and horses are active in the treatment of epilepsy, autism, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome. Animal therapy is conducted by a qualified specialist, who develops a therapeutic plan based on the patient’s history and comorbidities. All animals that participate in pet therapy receive special training.

Therapy Dogs

The main pet therapists are considered dogs, who are known for their sociability, friendliness, patience, and controllability. Dogs are indispensable for the treatment of motor disorders that accompany cerebral palsy. Playing with a dog restores the fine motor skills of the hands and feet, teaches patients to pick up and throw a ball, and to pet the pet. Through play techniques, young patients practice certain skills, often without even realizing that they are in therapy sessions. Dogs in cerebral palsy rehabilitation are also indispensable for increasing motivation, fighting aggression and stress. Large, friendly dogs are subconsciously perceived by patients as protectors. Therefore, children feel calm and confident in their company.

Animals are approached for help in a variety of situations, such as epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and even after a stroke. Pet therapy is used for diseases that are not related to the nervous system, but in which the patient has an increased risk of depression due to long-term treatment, such as cancer, or in palliative care. As Levinson noted more than half a century ago, animals help establish communication with people with different neurodevelopmental disorders – such as autism.

And of course, animals are used to treat mental disorders, from depression to post-traumatic stress disorder. For specific work with patients, the best animals are those that can be trained and trained: horses, dolphins, dogs, and pigs. But furry rodents, birds, lizards, and other animals, even donkeys, also help fight illness.

How Pigs and Cats Can Help

Scientists are still figuring out exactly how pet therapy works and to what extent it is effective. According to some studies, watching animals increases the activity of the prefrontal cortex of the large hemispheres of the brain – this area is involved in decision-making and is responsible for social interaction. Contact with animals releases endorphins in our bodies, like when we play sports, kiss, or make pleasant memories.

Endorphins have an analgesic effect, so pet therapy reduces to some extent the severity of pain syndromes, for example in fibromyalgia. These substances also reduce stress and anxiety, calm and lift one’s mood. Contact with animals, apparently due to the same hormones, normalize high blood pressure and improves the cardiovascular system. But zootherapy also has effects that depend on the specific animal.

For example, hippotherapy – treatment with horseback riding – is recommended for children with neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy. It takes physical strength, a sense of balance, and coordination to stay on a horse, and riding lessons help develop all of these skills. In addition, the horse is an animal with character, and you have to communicate with it, even while riding, which helps develop social skills. The nice thing is that one’s self-esteem goes up as well. Altogether, this turns hippotherapy into a tool of socialization.

Emotional Support

Dolphin therapy has about the same effect on children. Movement in water and contact with an intelligent animal develop physically and emotionally, help a person move, perform non-standard actions. And feline therapy, that is companionship with cats, is usually recommended to relieve stress: the vibrations of purring and watching the soft movements of cats helps to relax. When selecting animals, their character is also taken into account. People with mobility disorders should choose quiet, phlegmatic animals as companions. Patients who need to be motivated or helped to cope with depression or fear will find active animals.

Pet therapy provides emotional support and can alleviate various mental health issues. Qualified dogs that aid in pet therapy are notably crucial for aiding individuals dealing with stress, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Some of these animals serve as certified psychiatric service dogs, offering targeted therapeutic aid and improving life quality significantly. Obtaining a mental health service animal certification ensures these dogs are equipped to provide the necessary support tailored to their owner’s specific needs.

 Is it Possible to Buy a Dog and Get Well?

All of this sounds tempting and begs the question: can’t we replace medication altogether with companionship with animals? It would be great to get a hamster and get rid of bipolar disorder, and to pet a cat and say goodbye to childhood traumas. But the animal itself is not a pill or a certified specialist. The animal doesn’t know how or who to treat (contrary to popular myths about the special sensitivity of cats). Therefore, it is necessary to work with pets, if a therapeutic effect is required, together with a specialist. Pet therapy is usually not used by itself but as part of a complex treatment.

Cats and dogs are perhaps the most common type of pets and provide emotional well being for those who are not even seeking pet therapy.  The value of this relationship is so important that pet owners will even consider pet insurance in the event their pet becomes ill.  Medical bills can be quite expensive.

Of course, to a certain extent, an animal can improve health and quality of life by its mere presence – this is called “undirected pet therapy”. For example, the fact that you got your child a dog imposes a number of obligations. The dog has to be walked, i.e. to take a leash and walk in the streets. It is a physical and useful activity, so that dog owners, especially those who like to walk, have a better chance of staying healthy, even if they do not exercise. In addition, dogs sometimes serve as a confidant, if not a therapist: things that patients don’t dare tell another person, they can tell the dog.

Why Horses and Dolphins are Not Indicated for Everyone

Of course, we must understand that zootherapy is a method that requires serious research and evidence. Unfortunately, sometimes therapy with the help of animals is advertised unfairly, especially when it comes to the rehabilitation of children. For example, they promise unprecedented progress from lessons with dolphins, while there is no serious evidence that it is dolphins that improve the condition of patients.

If pet therapy is still considered as an auxiliary method of treatment, the animal must be chosen with a specialist. It all depends on the goals of treatment, the patient’s condition, and his peculiarities. Even if the child needs a faithful friend and outdoor walks, but is simply afraid of dogs, you should not drag him or her into contact with them. A patient with a spinal cord injury should not ride a horse, even if he wants to try hippotherapy, with a lack of warmth and close relationships is unlikely to seriously help a turtle.

There are also more prosaic contraindications. For example, an allergy to fur and skin, in which case you should not get a cat. In addition, not every animal can be therapeutic. Animals can be aggressive and fearful, and in this case, communicating with them will not be beneficial, especially for a person with a mental disorder or neurological disorder. But limitations can be circumvented – choose an animal that is not frightening and is not allergic to, exercise in places where animals are prepared to meet patients – and then exercise will do more good than harm.

Looking for a different kind of pet that is still safe for children and families?  Check out these child friendly reptiles.